With just seven weeks until the 2016 ARIA Awards Presented By Telstra, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) today announced the nominees in all categories, with the winners to be announced at The Star, Sydney on Wednesday, November 23, 2016.

The 30th Anniversary of the ARIA Awards provides an opportunity for ARIA and the music industry to celebrate its incredible history, amazing artists and moments that have captured the nation’s imagination.

This year, the ARIA stage will feature stellar live performances, unforgettable collaborations, special guest appearances and a very worthy induction of Crowded House into the ARIA Hall Of Fame - the band having come full circle since receiving the very first ARIA Award ever presented for Best Video. ARIA is honoured that Crowded House founding member, Nick Seymour has created the captivating commemorative artwork for 2016.

The 2015 ARIA Awards delivered increased ratings, was the #1 show for 16-39 year olds on the night, and achieved the most social #ARIAs ever, generating 109 million Twitter impressions around the world.

“On behalf of the ARIA Board I would like to congratulate all of the winners announced today in the Fine Arts, Artisan & Best Comedy categories, as well as those artists nominated for The 2016 ARIA Awards Presented By Telstra. All of the artists nominated in all the categories, truly demonstrate the influence and wonderful creativity of Australian music .

We look forward to a very special ARIAs, at The Star Sydney, to commemorate the successes of the past year and also to celebrate the 30 incredible years of the ARIA Awards.”

At today's ARIA Nominations Ceremony, ARIA Awards were presented to the recipients of three ARIA Artisan Award categories (Producer Of The Year, Engineer Of The Year and Best Cover Art) and four ARIA Fine Arts Awards categories (Best World Music Album, Best Jazz Album, Best Classical Album and Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album) and Best Comedy Release at the Nominations Event – they became the first of many artists to be acknowledged by their peers for their creative contributions over the last twelve months.

Highlights of the ceremony included Flume adding to his ARIA Award collection by winning all three Artisan ARIA Awards for Producer Of The Year, Engineer Of The Year (with Eric Dubowsky) and Best Cover Art (Jonathan Zawada) for his #1 ARIA album, ‘Skin’. He is also in line for a remarkable eight ARIA Awards at the ARIAs on November 23, making him the most highly nominated artist of 2016. Flume announced via video message, that featured a cameo from Best Cover Art designer, Jonathan Zawada,that he would be performing at the 30th Annual ARIA Awards.

It was also an exciting day for Flume's label-mates, Flight Facilities who won in the Best Classical Album category for ‘Flight Facilities - Live With The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’. Classically trained Grammy-award winning composer and violinist, Davide Rossi arranged and conducted the ARIA-Award winning album. This is the fifth time the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has received ARIA nominations in the Best Classical Album category and ARIA congratulates them on winning the Best Classical Album ARIA Award today, 21 years since they won their first ARIA for 'Simple Gifts' with Yvonne Kenny in 1995.

ARIA congratulates ABC Music whose artists were the proud recipients of the ARIA Awards in the remaining Fine Arts and Comedy categories. Vince Jones and Paul Grabowsky (Best Jazz Album), Josh Pyke (Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album), Nicky Bomba from Melbourne Ska Orchestra (Best World Music Album) and Roy & HG (Best Comedy Release) were at the ceremony to collect their ARIA awards and to celebrate their Award winning day.

ARIA Chief Executive Officer, Dan Rosen, added:

“2016 has been a record breaking year for Australian music with 16 Australian artists reaching the top of the ARIA Charts and the likes of Flume, Sia and Troye Sivan featuring strongly on charts and festival stages around the world. This success is celebrated today with the winners of the Fine Arts, Artisan & Best Comedy Awards and the announcement of the nominated artists for the 2016 ARIA Awards Connected By Telstra.

“Congratulations to all of the artists honoured today as winners in the Fine Arts, Artisan & Best Comedy Categories. These winners show that the high quality of artistic achievement in the Australian music scene is spread across a wide range of genres. We can't wait to continue our celebrations of 30 glorious years of ARIA.”

NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events Stuart Ayres said, “Congratulations to the ARIA Awards Fine Arts, Artisan and Comedy category winners and to each of the nominees announced today. The NSW Government, through Destination NSW, looks forward to welcoming the Australian music industry to Sydney this November to celebrate 30 years of the ARIAs."

The 2016 ARIA Awards Presented By Telstra will again give Australian music fans the chance to have their say in who takes home an ARIA Award, with four publicly voted awards: Best International Act, Best Australian Live Act, Best Video and Apple Music Song of the Year. For more information on the 2016 ARIA Awards Presented By Telstra publicly voted awards, visit ariaawards.com.au/public-voting

For the first time this year, fans can make history by voting for the Apple Music Song of the Year by playing your favourite song in Apple Music. This is in addition to being able to vote via ariaawards.com.au/public-voting. Listen to the nominated songs for more than 30 seconds in Apple Music for your vote to count, either from the Apple Music Song of the Year playlist or individual track plays; go to applemusic.com/arias. See voting terms and conditions for eligible Play votes*.

For the second year in a row, music fans will decide an ARIA winner exclusively via Twitter. Last year, more than 2.5 Million Tweets determined the Best Australian Live Act. This year, Twitter is giving fans the opportunity to vote exclusively for the Best International Artist category. Fans all over the world can start voting for their favourite International Artist now by heading to Twitter using the following hashtags:

And that's not the only way to celebrate the #ARIAs on Twitter. Twitter Australia will be unveiling 10 custom Twitter emojis for this year's ARIA Awards. The first emoji is active today. Tweets with the hashtag #ARIAs will generate a custom 30th Anniversary emoji. The remaining 9 emojis will honour music artists and will be unveiled in coming weeks.

Stay tuned for further announcements of performers and presenters for the 2016 ARIA Awards Presented By Telstra in coming weeks, including the full program of events for ARIA Week, which is set to be its biggest and best year ever. Featuring the Crowded House Encore shows at the Sydney Opera House Forecourt, MTV Beats And Eats, Hope Rocks at Hunter Valley, Electronic Music Conference (EMC), the popular ARIA Masterclass and curated showcases, ARIA Week ensures that music fans and venues around Sydney are going to be spoilt for musical choice in the week surrounding the 2016 ARIA Awards Presented By Telstra.

ARIA would like to thank NSW Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events, Stuart Ayres, for his attendance at the Event and our Presenting Partner, Telstra for hosting the event at the Telstra Customer Insight Centre, Sydney.

ARIA would also like to take this opportunity to thank Hosts Scott Tweedie & Liv Phyland from Network Ten's The Loop and Presenters Robbie Buck from ABC 702, Andrew Hansen from The Chaser, Linda Marigliano & Dom Alessio from triple j, Smallzy from Smallzy's Surgery Nova, Rove & Sam from Hit Network, Ugly Phil from The Rubber Room on Triple M and Mike E & Emma from The Edge 96.1’s breakfast show.

The ARIA Awards and ARIA Week are proudly supported by the NSW Government, through its tourism and major events agency Destination NSW

*Eligible votes include those from Australian Apple Music members who play and listen to nominees’ song for a min. 30 seconds in Apple Music between 1pm AEDT 5 October - 11:59pm AEDT 18 November, 2016. Plays less than 30s or from curated playlists and radio stations, other than the Apple Music Song of the Year playlist, are excluded. Multiple plays of the same nominated song during one day is still counted as one vote for that song with maximum one vote per nominated song per day per member applicable.

THE 2016 ARIA AWARDS PRESENTED BY TELSTRA NOMINATIONS LEADER BOARD

ELEVEN NOMINATIONS

Flume

Producer Of The Year - WINNER

Engineer Of The Year - WINNER

Best Cover Art - WINNER

Telstra Album Of The Year

Best Male Artist

Best Dance Release

Best Independent Release

Best Pop Release

Apple Music Song of the Year

Best Australian Live Act

Best Video

SEVEN NOMINATIONS

Troye Sivan

Telstra Album Of The Year

Best Male Artist

Best Pop Release

Apple Music Song Of The Year

Best Video

Engineer Of The Year

Producer Of The Year

SIX NOMINATIONS

Illy

Best Male Artist

Best Pop Release

Apple Music Song Of The Year

Best Video

Engineer Of The Year

Producer Of The Year

Sia

Telstra Album Of The Year

Best Female Artist

Best Independent Release

Best Pop Release

Apple Music Song Of The Year

Best Video

The Avalanches

Telstra Album Of The Year

Best Dance Release

Best Group

Engineer Of The Year

Producer Of The Year

Best Cover Art

FIVE NOMINATIONS

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Best Group

Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album

Best Independent Release

Best Australian Live Act

Best Video

RÜFÜS

Telstra Album Of The Year

Best Dance Release

Best Group

Best Australian Live Act

Best Cover Art

Violent Soho

Best Group

Best Independent Release

Best Rock Album

Best Australian Live Act

Best Video

FOUR NOMINATIONS

Bernard Fanning

Best Male Artist

Best Adult Contemporary Album

Best Cover Art

Engineer Of The Year

THREE NOMINATIONS

Delta Goodrem

Best Female Artist

Best Video

Best Cover Art

Hilltop Hoods

Apple Music Song of the Year

Best Australian Live Act

Best Video

L D R U

Breakthrough Artist

Best Dance Release

Apple Music Song of the Year

Montaigne

Best Female Artist

Breakthrough Artist

Producer Of The Year

The Veronicas

Best Group

Best Pop Release

Apple Music Song of the Year

TWO NOMINATIONS

Courtney Barnett - Best Australian Live Act and Best Video, Gang Of Youths- Best Australian Live Act and Best Rock Album, Guy Sebastian - Best Male Artist and Best Video, Jarryd James - Best Adult Alternative Album and Best Independent Release, Kate Miller-Heidke - Best Comedy Release and Best Original Soundtrack/Cast/Show Album, Sarah Blasko - Best Adult Alternative Album and Best Female Artist, The Living End - Best Australian Live Act and Best Rock Album